News Snippets

As most of you know, science happens all the time, and usually I was really good at reporting all the fun science news. Then I got busy, then I got lazy (Twitter makes sharing stories to darn easy), then busy again... but who cares??? I have a blog to write! Who says all the post have to be long and amazing?!?!

Here are some stories that I have found to be interesting these past few days:

• Sixty Second Science did a podcast about sugar being able to flush out microbes. Sugar actually helps antibiotics work more effectively in chronic infections.
• There was a great video showing chimpanzees exhibiting what humans would consider "mourning behaviors" and, of course, was posted to National Geographic. What do you think? Are they just unusually quiet and curious or does it seem like mourning?
• Elevated levels of radiation were found in seaweed near the "injured" nuclear plant in Japan.
• Locally, one guys stupid laziness caused an island wide (two islands actually) power outage. Fantastic.
• Whales in the West Indies have West Indian accents. It's true. Studies have shown that whales have regional accents and dialects!

So go and read... You might learn something!

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Debate!: Animals in Captivity

In the wake of yesterdays bombardment of the news of an orca attack on a trainer at SeaWorld, Orlando, the conversation came up many times about the purpose of keeping these large mammals in captivity. While animals have been held in captivity for thousands of years for the simple sake of enjoyment, showcase, and pride of ownership, many a conversation has been had about the reasoning behind this. This sort of thing is perfect for the now rare and occasional Debate! series.

Too many times, the presence of non-native wildlife in an area, no matter how contained the plants or animals may be, the organisms end up becoming invasives and manage a way into the wildlife in the surrounding areas. This destroys the biodiversity in many areas and since this is the Year of Biodiversity, an appropriate debate as well. That is what happened, if you recall, with the Vervet monkeys in St. Kitts. There is also a very serious problem with invasive lionfish in the Caribbean. There is even a bounty out for these guys. The lionfish ended up in these waters as wayward pets. People buy exotic animals and instead of properly disposing of, selling, whatever, they release these animals into the wild. Now the lionfish is destroying reef systems simply by not having any natural predators. We'll get into that later, though.

On a larger scale, however, killer whales (Orcinus orca) and other dolphins are not your average pets. Many of these animals start out as rescue animals or are bred in captivity. The rescue animals, such as those found at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, are rehabilitated for release. Many of the seriously injured ones, like Winter, would never make it being re-released in the wild so they are used for educational purposes. Many of these amazing mammals, however, actually are captured for use in entertainment shows, suffer various pathologies, and have a decreased life expectancy.

So, dear readers, on what side of the argument do you weigh in on here? People do die of pig related accidents all the time, and this was a bit of a freak incident, but should animals of this nature be held captive? There are a lot of angles one can take here, so happy debating!

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Animal News Snippets

Apparently there is a lot going on in the kingdom Animalia. Since I don't have the time to do an individual post on everything I have found interesting just this morning, I am going to summarize it all and let you pick what you want to read!

• Australia- A team of scientists finds that fiddler crabs lie. The crabs' giant claws can regenerate, but some of the males have HUGE fake claws with no teeth and are quite flimsy. These claws are used to attract females and convince males that it is not worth fighting them. I guess this is along the lines of fake muscle implants.

• United States- Thousands of wild mustangs (as in the one I got to see on my adventure in the West) may have to be slaughtered. These wild horses are kept in holding pens by the Bureau of Land Management and the cost to keep them is getting too high. They won't release them into the wild because their populations increase rapidly and the public land they live on needs to be used for ranching and farming. Really?!?! THAT'S the excuse they came up with??? "I'm sorry, Spirit, we want sheep here instead." Anyway, you can adopt on of the majestic creatures here.

• Japan- The supposedly scientific whale hunts that Japan has been conducting have started again. This year, however, the research vessel left without the usual fanfare. The boat left quietly and spokesmen said they would not disclose whether or not the boat was again going on its whale hunt for safety of the crew. This is all after a disagreement the Japanese government had with Australia over approval to kill, excuse me, cull some 50 humpbacks. You can watch Sea Shepard's campaign against the whaling on the new Animal Planet show, Whale Wars.

• Washington D.C.- A cute little baby gazelle was born at the National Zoo. This is a big deal as it is estimated that less than five hundred of this particular species exist in the wild. You should see the pictures. Really cute!
  

All the links in purple are the main articles. Everything else is extra information. Thanks for reading!

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